"Avengers" #18 is part of the main "Infinity" crossover storyline, but not only is the pace slow, but it's also slightly ill-conceived. Jonathan Hickman and Leinil Francis Yu can only make a spaceship battle so exciting.

How "Avengers" #16 is a "Prelude to Infinity" is still a mystery, but Jonathan Hickman, Nick Spencer and Stefano Caselli are continuing their story of
Earth continuing to fight off a planetary infection.

"Avengers" #14 is billed as a prelude to "Infinity," but from this vantage point, Jonathan Hickman, Nick Spencer, and Stefano Caselli are just continuing the story from the past 13 issues, so don't get scared off.

“Max Lord! Dick, he stole the OMAC Project,
he killed tens of thousands that time, he just
framed Captain Atom in Magog’s murder and
killed nearly another 900 civilians in
Chicago! He killed Ted Kord.”

“Sequence and distance are compressing to
infinite/eternal meaninglessness around a
single point which even the non-physicists in
the room must realize is the bazillion foot tall
glowing bearded guy in the skirt.”